More adventures in gluten free foods

(I meant to post this a few days ago. Oops.  Too much going on…geesh.)

A member of the mercury support group posted about foods that might create problems for folks who are gluten sensitive.   She had taken an expensive ($225) test for foods that the body reacted to as if they were gluten.  A lot of the foods she reacted to are on the “safe” list for gluten sensitive folk.

And then another member of the group posted this link.  Of course, coffee, chocolate and eggs are on the list.

As you can imagine, I was depressed that chocolate was once again mentioned as a problem for us.  But coming off of a five day migraine means that something is wrong and I need to start looking at what I am eating.

Worse than that was the eggs and coffee.  If you can’t eat grains, the usual stuff you would eat for breakfast is out the window…so eggs were an easy option for me.

So, I went searching for others’ views on this, and found a helpful links here .  This makes more sense to me, because Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (GAPS), had eggs on her list for recommended foods.  She even recommended raw eggs beaten with honey for their nutrient value.

I have been trying to get free range eggs, but that is hard to come by in my area.  I came across someone who has eggs for sale independently of stores, and I plan on asking about the feed they use.  As a side note~when I first saw the notice, my first thought was “I wonder if they take food stamps?”  And the next happy thought was…”I don’t have to choose my food according to who will take food stamps anymore! Woot!”

On another site, coffee is debated (in the comments section) on whether it or the dairy creamer might be responsible.  Dr. McBride states that we should not drink instant coffee, but that freshly made coffee that is somewhat weak can be in our diet.

Okay, I feel a little less constricted.

And I realize that chocolate IS a problem, but I seriously don’t know how I’m going to give it up.  It’s an addiction, for sure.  I think I’m going to have to approach it like an addiction and focus on one day at a time.  It would be sooo much easier if it didn’t taste so good.  And be comfort food.

Same with rice.  I had purchased rice flour and made biscuits and gravy as comfort food…and now it looks like I’ll have to give that up, too.  And the rice flour pizza, too.  Arrgh.

One of the comments linked to this page.  He explains gluten reactions a little more in-depth than most.

Another mentioned the gluten free society.

 

Recovering from mercury poisoning…

…more specifically, recovering from the disassociation of autism–

We had a troll visit the mercury support group recently pretty much saying it was all crap.

One of the mothers of an autistic child spoke out with this wonderful letter:

Andy,

Wonderful post and thank you for it. Varun is wasting his time here. The proof is in the pudding for us. Although I would be lying if I said I
didn’t dream of a complete “cure,” I never thought in terms of  “I must
cure him.” That would be icing on the cake, of course, but when I chose to reject what the medical mainstream tried to sell me, “No hope. Dope him into oblivion so he can be controlled or institutionalize him,”

My goal was to improve his quality of life with the hope of independence. He has emerged from the abyss. I have witnessed more progress in the three years since we began AC, then in the ten years previous we did only diet and supplements.

To hear him excited about subjects such as architecture and meteorology and to waiver back and forth as to which he wishes to become,it is like Christmas morning every day here now. Is he “cured”? No, not yet. How far can he go? Only time will tell, but I have never been so full of hope since we began this journey.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and if I ever meet you in person one day, be prepared for a bear hug and a few tears of joy!

Sincerely,

Starbuck75

~~~~~~~~~~~

Just for notes–“Varun” was saying no one was seeing results and that we were a “cult”.  Yep.

Okay, here are some of the things that happened to me, but are now healing or healed:

–I had such edema that my toenails turned black and fell off when I was moving –twice.  The pressure underneath the nail from standing all day, bending, and constant movement proved too much for my mercury poisoned self, and caused the nail to die.  It took a year the first time (2006) I moved, and the nail growing back was misshapen and very thin.

–Thinning hair that became straight and lost its shine.  My hair is growing in thicker now, with the wavy hair I always had (much to my chagrin), and it now has its shine back.

–Fingernails that were blue and had lost the “moons”.  Now they are healthier looking pink with some of the moons back.

–Skin rash that covered my forearms–itchy, angry red patches that are now almost gone with pink scars where the patches were.

–My eyesight had dimmed.  It is now almost normal sight. However, I am still having to use glasses, where my eyesight had been 20/20 and 20/15.

–My short term memory was so bad at one point that I would literally forget something I had been told 30 seconds before.  This was the time when I forgot my own children’s names–very frightening and upsetting.

–My hands were shaking at one point.  I thought I had Parkinson’s, and didn’t tell anyone what was happening.  If they would shake in public, I would hide them so no one would notice.

–My ADD was terrible.  Your brain is this wonderful machine that makes connections from all over the place, and when you’re mercury-poisoned, your brain can’t connect all those places, so your thoughts are all over the place.  This also made reading, something I love, damn near impossible because I would read a page, forget what was on it, read it again, and…well, rinse, repeat.  Getting through a book was agony.  Still dealing with this, however, but it is much diminished.

–My dyslexia was much worse.  As with the ADD, it has improved, but still is affected.

–I was getting migraines after exercising.  I am now able to exercise at least twice a week without problem.  It’s still not where I want it to be, but much, much improved for which I am eternally grateful.  This was something that depressed me to no end.  I was becoming an invalid and I wanted to be out doing things.

–I started getting monthly migraines one year after the three amalgams were placed in 1994.  Before this, I had migraine once per year (probably due to gluten intolerance).

–My teeth have improved.  I’m not experiencing tooth pain and decay like before.  Yay.

–My personality is returning.  I lost my sense of humor to this horrible poison.  I lost my love of life.  I didn’t care about things I had previously cared about.  I overreacted to things that I would have not normally done.

–All of my senses were affected by this stealth poison–hearing, sight, taste, touch, smell were all diminished and still are at times.

–I have an exaggerated startle response brought on by this poison.  It is still there sometimes, but is diminishing as I chelate.

–Autistic symptoms.  When it was really bad, I didn’t want to go anywhere–if I could, I would have stayed home all the time.  Then I wanted to be around people, but I didn’t want to talk to them.  Now I’m in a fuzzy place where those symptoms are easing up, but still pop up at the most inconvenient times.

–I had joint pain and muscle aches and muscle atrophy.  All of those are diminishing as I chelate the poison out.  It’s interesting that I get the muscle aches when I have a migraine, too.

–Lastly, I lost intellect.  The reason I say this is I was doing dumb stuff that I knew better in my previous life.  I also had tested in the 90th percentile when taking a test for MENSA.  I tried again a few years ago, on their website, and got the “don’t call us, we’ll call you” schtick.

This list is not exhaustive, but gives a pretty good idea what mercury poisoned folk go through and it proves that low dose chelation can lead to recovery.

Proving mercury leaching

A clever member of our mercury support group has submitted a pdf of Georgia Tech university testing of his mouthguard for mercury (Hg) contamination.  It proves that Hg leaches out of dental amalgams…something we all knew, but the brain-dead FDA will not acknowledge it.

Mouth Guard Report

Like the Bayer corporation, this is another example of not holding corporations nor dentists, nor the ADA, or anyone else responsible for what can only be described as a criminal act.  People are being poisoned while they look the other way.

Why? Because of $$$ they might have to spend out in lawsuits….can’t have anybody taking responsibility, now can we? /snark

My personal opinion is that every single person who has been made ill by amalgams should be given an automatic disability status until they are able to chelate this stupid poison out of their system and regain their health and ability to earn a living.

 

Heavy Metals and Chemical Toxins in Foods **edited

Where’s my spoon?  /snark

Magnetic Wheaties.  The press refused to publish this because they didn’t think it was real.  Anyone want to test their own Wheaties and dispute it?

Heavy Metals in Vegan foods. 

Sea vegetables.

Here’s another paper on heavy metals content in foods.

Arsenic in food.  The discussion is in defense of reports of arsenic in organic foods.  What the news reports got wrong was that heavy metals are present in conventionally grown foods, too.  It’s not a fault of growing them organically…but it is a fault of our toxic environment—which we are all responsible for promoting.

Another link here.

While there is a set legal limit for the amount of arsenic in water, that’s not the case for food. In previous weeks, researchers also detected high levels of arsenic in apple and grape juices. “All of these arsenic studies come back to the fact that there are multiple exposures, with the levels varying from product to product and batch to batch,” says Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food & Water Watch, a consumer safety organization. “We need to figure out some regulatory limit.”

~~~~~~~~~

Arsenic in rice has been discussed on the mercury support group–obviously, we’re concerned about putting more poison in our bodies.  It’s frustrating as hell because even if you eat organic, you’re still at risk of heavy metals by the soil contamination.

Someone said in a reply on one of the sites I visited:  you’re pretty much going to get exposed by anything you eat…nothing is safe.

But I would not give up organic food.  Conventionally grown food is less nutritious, besides polluting the environment even more–it doesn’t make sense on that point alone.

Finally, here’s a disturbing video produced by Environmental Working Group on toxic chemicals in babies’ blood.

I looked up the Kids Safe Chemicals Act of 2008…and I’ll give you three guesses how it turned out.  Yep.

But, wait!  There’s yet another bill introduced with link to co-sponsors…here’s where it stands. 

Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D-NJ] Bill Author

Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY] Bill Author

Max Baucus [D-MT]

Michael F. Bennet [D-CO]

Richard Blumenthal [D-CT]

Barbara Boxer [D-CA]

Maria Cantwell [D-WA]

Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]

William “Mo” Cowan [D-MA]

Richard Durbin [D-IL]

Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]

Al Franken [D-MN]

Tom Harkin [D-IA]

Angus King [I-ME]

Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]

Patrick Leahy [D-VT]

Robert Menéndez [D-NJ]

Jeff Merkley [D-OR]

Barbara Mikulski [D – MD]

Patty Murray [D-WA]

Bill Nelson [D- FL]

Bernard Sanders [I-VT]

Brian Schatz [D-HI]

Charles Schumer [D-NY]

Jon Tester [D-MT]

Tom Udall [D-NM]

Elizabeth Warren [D-MA]

Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI]

Ron Wyden [D-OR]

Again, no mention on the toxins’ effects on the animals and birds.  Mercury has been found in birds on land and sea birds.  It’s also been found in marine mammals.

**edited to correct wording.

Bad Whiskey, mental institutions; Andrea Yates

City Jackdaw has the reasons you could have been admitted to a mental institution in the 19th century.

Masturbation and, well, being a woman from all the “ailments” associated with being female.  Freud was an influence, I’m sure.

Note the reading of a novel was reason enough to be admitted! No doubt this was directed at a woman, because women were discouraged from educating themselves.  Truly, the medical profession said women would “shrink” their uterus if they went to college.  They based this genius on the observation that women who went to college were not as likely to have children, not have as many children.  Yep.

I wish I could say that the psychiatric profession has progressed passed the misogyny, but if you read the DSM, their diagnostic manual, it has “diseases” that describe the symptoms of being…a woman.  It’s a very vague description that has no reasoning behind it.

Related to this~

I was watching a documentary on Andrea Yates yesterday.  Her case always troubled me.  I felt at the time that she is mercury toxic for her to suddenly start acting mentally ill.

My intuition has been heightened by more clues — she became non-verbal (autistic symptoms) with her children, even though she performed regular duties such as fixing them lunch.  Her father had Alzheimer’s, so he and she were probably exposed to mercury (my belief that mercury and aluminum are direct causes of Alzheimer’s). Her father was of Irish ancestry–another strong clue of inability to detox mercury.

She began to act irrationally after the birth of her fourth child.  This is crucial because if she were already mercury burdened at her own birth (possibility),  and received Rho-Gam shots, she received more mercury via the shots.  After the fifth birth, she absolutely would have more toxicity and the mercury amount probably pushed her over the edge.

Those around her described her as loving before she became ill.  Her symptoms match mercury/heavy metal toxicity: anxiety, depression, autistic symptoms, bags under her eyes (adrenal fatigue/thyroid), self-mutilation,  and on top of that, the very drugs she was prescribed most likely caused more harm than good.

I hope that someone around her with some intellect will look into heavy metal poisoning as the root cause of her illness.  I just feel it in my gut.

Progress…?

For those of you who don’t know, I’m recovering from mercury poisoning.  This is just a short post on my progress–

You might recall I’ve written about mercury poisoned folks not getting colds like normal.  I had not had a cold – a sneezing your head off cold – for about five years.

So…I had one last month where I sneezed more in one week than I had the entire past year.  And I have another one now…

I never thought I would be happy that I’m sneezing…but, yeah, I am. :p

The theory is that mercury so damages our immune system that it cannot muster a response, which is what the sneezing, aching muscles, etc., are…

So, while sneezing is no fun, it makes me happy to know that my immune system is still alive and kicking its way back from the cliff.  ::does happy dance::  :;well, okay, doesn’t do happy dance because I feel like crap right now…but the spirit is willing even though the body sez Pfft.::

The right to raw milk

…is also a right to decide what goes into our bodies.  Apparently, Americans aren’t the only ones battling the bureaucrats who won’t allow us to know what food contains GMO’s…but tell us that good, natural raw milk with natural enzymes and natural Vitamin A and D (not synthetic, which is questionable)  that help us digest that milk…is bad for us.  Riiiight.  Somebody please explain this backward thinking…’cause I don’t get it…

More here.

Additionally, the right to decide what goes into our bodies has a far-reaching aspect–the right not to be vaccinated.  It never ceases to amaze me that abortion advocates will call you a nutjob for being anti-vaccine while saying that you have a right to choose to have an abortion…but not have a right to refuse vaccination.  Unreal.

 

Grain Brain

A discussion was started on the mercury support group about a member getting her mother to move in with her and get the horrible amalgams out of her mouth so she could detox.

I was happy for her and her mother.  I related to her that my mother suffered from Alzheimer’ s that I am almost positive she was a Celiac and mercury toxic. But unfortunately, my own self diagnosis came too late to help her. I tried to convince my siblings that she was Celiac. This was about six months before she passed. They were saying she was too far gone at that point, and I am still questioning that–hell it was worth a try.

The nurse at her doctor’s office practically laughed at me when I called to request the doctor investigate a possible Celiac diagnosis. I tried to explain to the nurse about the neurological connection to Celiac and mercury poisoning… she politely listened, but I could tell she thought I was a nut.

My mother continued to eat breads, cakes, and cookies.  My siblings were of the opinion that it was the one pleasure she had left in life…but my thinking was that pleasure was surely causing her illness.

Another member brought up the book, Grain Brain by neurologist David Perlmutter.  I haven’t read the book yet, but I did catch him on PBS yesterday.

What he said stunned me–that a *cough* scientific “fact” has been disproven:   That your brain does not regenerate brain cells.  It does.

Stunning–we have been taught that our brains cannot regenerate, but Dr. Perlmutter states that aerobic exercise turns on the genes responsible for brain cell regeneration.  He stated that DHA (fish oil) also does the same thing.    I had experienced this myself, prior to mercury poisoning–I noticed about six months after beginning aerobic exercise how much better I felt and how much better my brain functioned.  I started after the birth of my first child, and it was the only exercise that I enjoyed  (I always disliked sit ups, push ups, etc. …b-o-r-i-n-g.  And I disliked the competitive nature of gym class.  We had a teacher once that punished the side that lost–since one side always had to lose, it was a ridiculous punitive action that made me hate gym class.)

Anyway, Dr. Perlmutter was basically stating everything I had learned from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride on the GAPS diet…grains are bad for you. Period.  I think Perlmutter goes into more detail about specific amounts of carbs to have…I’m just not comfortable with the mindset that one-size-fits-all.  I think we are too individualistic and medicine still does not recognize that.  They like to have us pigeonholed into neat little scientific packages when it has been shown, over and over again, that our bodies are unique and respond differently….as in the case of mercury poisoning…there are few symptoms that are alike for merc poisoning.  That is why it is so difficult for them to diagnose–they can’t seem to wrap their brains around many different symptoms–some physical, some neurological–coming from toxin exposure.

 

DN!

I don’t think democracynow could have put together a more emotional show than they did today.

The domestic violence segment is heartbreaking.  I don’t know how anyone can look at that woman’s injuries and ask her why she didn’t try to run away!  Who does that?!  (I’m really trying to restrain myself from using every choice expletive I know).  Given that she will either not have a job, or has one that pay is so low she cannot survive on her own, it will take nearly being beaten to death (or verbally abused to the point of the soul’s death), before she will even *think* of leaving.

I’m sure the documentary will explore the subject, but having not seen it, I can’t foresee that they will explore everything–the impact of toxins on rage; the circle of domestic violence, war, and domestic violence.  The interview mentions that the abuser was a body builder—red flag right there because of steroid use and other drugs that are known to produce aggressive feelings. 

Secondly, mercury and other heavy metals can produce feelings of rage and apparently promote criminal behavior.  Since one can’t really escape mercury, because it’s everywhere, I think it should be standard to do hairtests on those charged with crimes.  One can only wonder at what we would find–and how detoxing someone acting in a criminal way could change their life to a positive one….

My biggest hope for the film is to gather all the evidence of the rape/violence against women culture we live in.

I’ve touched on the domestic violence connection to war here.

My blog on the justification of rape…because *she’s just a whore*  here.

My blog on the military and sexual harassment/rape here. I wish that I could say my prediction of expressions of “outrage” and then business as usual was wrong…but, alas….women will still have to go through their chain of command, who may or may not be harassing them, too, or encouraging an atmosphere of bullying (which is what sexual harassment/rape/violence are).  How can we say that the youth are wrong for chanting misogynist lyrics when adults are condoning the treatment of women as second class?

I briefly volunteered for an organization that used lawyers and paralegals volunteering to help victims of domestic violence get protective orders.  It was hard to take–the first case I had, I was to interview the victim.  She unfortunately was not native to this country and her English was hard to understand at times, so there was a small communication barrier.  She was afraid of her victimizer, because he threatened to have her sent back to her native country, among other things.  The lawyer, trying to work within the laws on the books (that suck), told her to take the minimum that the judge would offer her.  I tried to convince her, based on the attorney’s advice. She refused.  The judge ruled against her petition, leaving her vulnerable.  I never felt so worthless for letting her down. She was understandably upset and immediately felt we had let her down.  It was hard.

~~~~~~~~~~

The second part of the show, about Alzheimers’ and Dementia was particularly hard.  It’s coming up on a year anniversary of my mother’s death…and it’s already starting to affect me.

It was especially hard to see the faces of the patients–I saw my Mom in them.  Music is definitely a way to reach them, as it was one of the last things my mother lost, but in the end, she was so detached that I don’t know whether having her own headset would have helped.  The nursing home did play Beatles and other 60s music, but that was in the dining hall, not in the patients’ rooms.  Mostly, they watched mind-numbing TV that doesn’t stimulate them by any measure.

And, as above, a hairtest on heavy metals should also be standard for these patients….my God, think of the lives saved if these folks were toxic and able to be saved through detox….

Young: Tar Sands are Canada’s Hiroshima **edited

Neil Young is finishing up his “Honor the Treaties” concerts in Canada.  He compared what is happening to Hiroshima, which irked a few people.

He is being compared to Jenny McCarthy, whom has spoken out on vaccines causing autism.

McCarthy, a former model/actress, vehemently claims childhood vaccinations cause autism and other disabilities, despite those claims having been disproven by rigorous scientific research.

~~~~~~~~~

…disproven by rigorous scientific research….

bwahahahahahahahaha *snort*

Well, as I posted recently, scientific research has a few flaws in it that the vaccine apologists, as Dr. Cutler refers to them, choose to ignore.

I hope that Neil Young considers being compared to Jenny McCarthy a compliment, because I do….much as I do when I’m called a bitch for speaking up for myself or others…

People who diminish others have little facts to back their claims up…that’s why they attack the person instead of the person’s arguments.  Ad hominem.

**edited to add:  I just wanted to say that Global News pushes vaccines.  They had article after article on scaring people into getting vaccination, and that the flu season was horrible, and that they were running out of vaccines.  Very lopsided reporting.